Back before Christmas, my family took a road trip to spend the holiday with my military son. While driving through rural Alabama near Selma, we encountered a group of orange-robed Buddhist monks going the other way. At that point, I hadn’t heard of the monks’ Walk for Peace, but my wife had. She was starstruck.
Since that day in December, the popularity of the monks has taken off. The official Facebook page for the Walk for Peace says that the walk is estimated to take 120 days and cover 2,300 miles. The walkers, 19 Vietnamese Buddhist monks, set out on October 26, 2025, from their monastery in Fort Worth, Texas. A live tracking map shows them currently near Greensboro, North Carolina. The stated goal of the group is “to raise awareness of peace, loving kindness, and compassion across America and the world.”
The walk has not been without incident. One monk was hit by a car near Houston, resulting in an amputated leg. (Houston traffic is awful, but that’s worse than any of my experiences.) The monk later rejoined his comrades.
I must say that I’ve been surprised by the warm reception for the monks as they travel through Trump country. There have been friendly crowds that seem to grow larger as the walk continues. This may seem incongruous from a region that often seems less than welcoming to people of different colors, creeds, and faith traditions. I’d be willing to bet that a lot of the people lining the streets and waving are people who voted Trump and want to “deport them all.”
I’m not sure exactly why the Walk for Peace seems to resonate with so many people. It may be that the monks are just an oddity as they pass through various communities, something to be gawked at before it goes away.
Or maybe there is more to it. Maybe the Walk for Peace taps into a desire to stop the spiraling violence both at home and abroad. Within a few days of my encounter with the monks, the US attacked Venezuela and then spent weeks threatening Greenland with annexation under either friendly or hostile terms. In Venezuela, the US left the old regime intact while taking every shipment of oil since Maduro’s capture. The money for the oil is reportedly going into a not-so-secret account in Qatar that is, of course, not authorized by Congress.
At home, the situation is similar. In Minneapolis, ICE is violently clashing with protesters, and Trump seems ready to send in the army under the Insurrection Act. In response, Gov. Walz has mobilized the Minnesota National Guard for possible deployment “to help support public safety, including protection of life, preservation of property and supporting the rights of all who assemble peacefully.”
This sets up the frightening possibility that federal troops and state troops could come into conflict with one another. I’m old enough to remember when Republicans were aghast at the idea that Barack Obama would send the army into Texas. The Tea Party protesters of yesteryear have no problem with Trump’s federal incursion into Minnesota, however. “Don’t tread on me” has become “comply or die.”
Why does Walz feel the need to protect his citizens from federal agents? In the wake of the Renee Good killing, the Department of Justice said there would be no investigation into Jonathan Ross’s actions, practically unheard of in an officer-involved shooting. The DOJ has also blocked access for state and local investigators in Minnesota. Police chiefs in Minnesota have criticized ICE’s police work over violations of civil rights and the use of excessive force, including stopping off-duty police officers based solely on their appearance, drawing weapons without cause, and numerous assaults, including knocking phones out of the hands of people trying to record ICE encounters.
To top it off, ICE’s version of events cannot be trusted. Initially, the government claimed that Renee Good was a “professional agitator” who targeted agents with her car. After multiple videos discredited that version of events, the investigation into another shooting involving ICE in Maryland last month. The original statement from the Department of Homeland Security about the Christmas Eve incident in Glen Burnie, Maryland, claimed that two men tried to ram ICE vehicles. Now it seems that one of the immigrants was already in ICE custody when he was injured. That is a drastic alteration of the government account.
These incidents are part of a larger pattern of deceptive claims by ICE and the Border Patrol. Back in November, a federal judge in Chicago took the agencies to task for “cute responses… or outright lying” in legal filings that were disproven by video evidence from body cameras or other sources. Among the judge’s findings were that federal agents deployed flash bangs, tear gas, and pepper spray on peaceful crowds without warning, yelling “fuck yeah” as they did so, agents drove erratically and brake-checked other vehicles to create a pretext for traffic stops, and Border Patrol dropped all charges against a woman accused of vehicle ramming and pulling a gun on agents. The Border Patrol agents shot the woman five times during the altercation, but the failure to press charges suggests a lack of evidence for their accusations.
I’ve digressed a bit, but the message of the monks is likely attractive to a lot of Americans right now. “Peace, lovingkindness, and compassion” are a lot more appealing to most of us than “wars and rumors of wars,” both at home and abroad.
Texas Democratic senatorial candidate, James Talarico, recently drew fire from conservative Christians for saying, “I believe Christianity points to the truth. I also think other religions of love point to the same truth. I've learned more about my tradition by learning more about Buddhism and Hinduism and Islam and Judaism. And so I see these beautiful faith traditions as circling the same truth about the universe, about the cosmos, and that truth is inherently a mystery.”
A lot of people decried Talarico’s statement as heresy, but I think they missed the point. In fact, I think the Walk for Peace is a good example of what Talarico may mean.
I’m a Christian. I believe that Jesus is the ultimate Truth, but I also believe that Christians can lose their way and be deceived and distracted. Jesus, the Prince of Peace, taught love, even when it comes to our enemies and foreigners, compassion, and nonviolence.
Contrast the teachings of Christ with what we hear from the Trump Administration. Stephen Miller said the US has the right to take Greenland, simply because we are powerful enough to do so. Kristi Noem operates under the slogan, “one of ours, all of yours,” implying collective punishment for attacks on federal agents, a violation of both domestic law and the Geneva Convention. The Trump Administration’s tendency to bear false witness is well established, but Jedd Legume recently reported that an obscure filing revealed that ICE has not paid for third-party medical care for detained immigrants since October. As a result, many detainees are experiencing medical emergencies and chronic illnesses that are going untreated.
One of the buzzphrases online among the Christian Right is “toxic empathy.” From the perspective of those on the outside looking in, few would criticize American Christians for being too compassionate and not being judgmental enough. Would Jesus say that any amount of empathy would be enough to be toxic?
Trump’s fixation on Greenland, his war on immigrants (not just illegals), and other acts like his attempt to steal the 2020 election and his sexual assaults have a lot in common. Trump’s schemes usually center on dishonesty, intimidation, a lust for whatever catches his fancy at the moment, and a lack of regard for others. It’s “might makes right” rather than caring for the less fortunate and certainly not protecting them. Just ask dissidents in Iran and Venezuela.
In the current Administration, bullying, deception, and cruelty often seem to be the point, rather than a means to an end. These tactics are used even when there is no benefit to them. Even when they are counterproductive.
Maybe we love the monks because they are tapping into something that we know in our hearts is right. Maybe we cheer them because they are doing what we know we should be doing. Maybe they’re standing up where we are afraid to do so.
I’m a Christian, but we Christians are not doing too well in the peace and compassion departments. Maybe, as Talarico suggests, we could learn something from other religions about how to conduct ourselves. The monks and their Walk for Peace provide a good opportunity for that.
TRUMP BACKS DOWN Trump backed down from his latest tariff threats after announcing the “framework” of a deal that would allow the US “pockets of sovereignty” for additional bases. The deal seems to be close to the current status quo, but as I’ve said in the past, Trump cares more about headlines than the content of a deal.
The president of Finland said the crisis is not over yet, and I agree. Trump is famously wishy-washy, and no deal he makes is written in permanent ink. Write that down, stamp it, and take it to the bank.
CHURCH PROTEST Anti-ICE activists interrupted a church service in Minnesota, saying a pastor there worked for ICE. It has been correctly pointed out that Jesus engaged in a violent protest inside the Temple, but I still say this sort of tactic should be avoided. Even if there is biblical precedent, it is likely to be counterproductive.
CLINTON CONTEMPT Nine Democrats joined Republicans on the House Oversight Committee in voting to hold Bill and Hillary Clinton in contempt. The Clintons rejected a congressional subpoena regarding testimony about Jeffrey Epstein after they could not reach an agreement with Republicans on terms of the testimony.
UNJUST WAR The Catholic archbishop who oversees the US military has said that any invasion of Greenland would not be a just war and that soldiers would be justified in refusing to obey orders.
IN OTHER NEWS, Donald Trump has still refused to release the full Epstein files.
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